(Continued)
See that window? We can make it look like a bit light blue (as if we could see the sky through it). The method is simple: just complement (set the 1's to zeros and vice versa) and set the inverse bit on the scans with yellow ink and you'll have this:

window.png (1.83 KiB) Viewed 11407 times

Looks better, doesn't it?

You can play with these a bit more, for instance to give colors to the shields. I am using several different combinations (inversing just odd, just even or both scans, for instance). You get quite nice results after some testing, try to figure out which combination was used in each of these:

shields.png (589 Bytes) Viewed 11407 times

And you can also get white color (the inverse of black) of course. For instance my speech bubbles. They are drawn as black bubbles with white borders, and the text is written in white. Just set the inverse bit and you get this:

bubblecolor.png (1.78 KiB) Viewed 11407 times

(The lines box is setting the inverse bit on a white box with black text)

Sure you can imagine more combinations and effects. Have a look at the Skool Daze screenshots (the red-ish roof, the outside dark-bluish windows, the bookshelves...). The best of all this is that you store the color information within the graphic itself (as it is the inverse bit), not needing additional info, and that you get very little colour clash. Of course it needs experimentation to get decent results. HIDE is an excellent tool for this, I suggest you play with it if you want to obtain colorful graphics.

Masking a sprite is a bit more difficult (you surely understand now better the code on my first posts), but the result is worthit.

And if you feel your eyes need resting, just remove the attributes of the first column, and you'll have neat b&w graphics on the fly!

I hope this is now clearer and people start experimenting with this to get the awesome results we are used to watch in Twilighte's games!

Chema wrote:Well, after some delays the Oric version of Skool Daze is finally available!

Excellent! I'll be checking this out some time soon.

In other news, Dave Reidy has given permission to World of Spectrum to host all of Microsphere's games. Interestingly, in the permission statement he points out that the copyright remains with the original game developers (i.e. him and Keith Warrington), so I wonder under what terms AS is allowed to distribute the games, or to deny distribution of derivative works.

Well, I suppose they both share the rights somehow. When I was about to release the game (months ago) Dbug told me about the iOS version from Elite systems and, after some websearch, we found out (I think Dbug found out, to be precise) that Alternative Software seemed to have the rights.

I sent them an email, and they confirmed this point.

Anyway, it seems there is no problem while this is kept within the Oric community, and does not interfere with their sales of the iOS version *fingers crossed*

Don't hesitate to comment on the game, bugs, improvements, etc. All that feedback is important to me.

Twilighte wrote:Well explained given the potential of AIC mode Chema.
To me AIC mode is the only future for Oric graphics.
It offers the best colour scheme, best resolution and best flexibility.

As I believe the cover art for Impossible Mission illustrated it also works well on a large canvas.
I also wonder if it could be implemented into Dbug's Pictconv utility ?

is this AIC mode ever used back in the day?
if you set the inverse mode then the background is also changing color, to make it black do you print the character in inverse? (ie every 1 become zero and vice versa)

update : I think I got it since I set inverted mode then if I want black background I've to set it to white inverted 128+23 and voila.
test was 48000 set to 1 (red) 48001 set to 128+23 and 48002 set to 128+65 to display a light blue A.

Kamelito

Last edited by kamelito on Sat Aug 11, 2012 1:12 am, edited 4 times in total.

Twilighte wrote:I also wonder if it could be implemented into Dbug's Pictconv utility ?

I guess it depends of what you mean by implementing that.
Technically if you try to convert one of your screenshots, then PictConv will most probably succeed converting it, because it will try the inverse video, and all the combinations of ink and paper until it manages.

What would be possible is to add a mode where the user provide the base paper/ink colors to use on alternating lines and then let PictConv tries its best to map some random picture, but I'm not sure that would give very good results.

I tried to download the game into a real Atmos with a 11khz wavefile with Windows Media Player (not with audacity,the result is too bad ) The volume level is 70 percent.
The result is sooo nice !
¡mucho gracias Chema!

I really hope you enjoy the game. I've always loved it (played *a lot* in the speccy version). It is not as difficult as it might seem, and it is quite rich and fun, with a lot of freedom and unexpected events.

BTW, you loaded it by generating a wav from the tap file with tap2wav? Tried the ultra fast loading version (only available for Atmos)?

Hello Chema
I used TAP2WAV to convert SchoolDaze file but TAP2CD did not work with ScubaDive file (frozen main screen) with a real CD because I suppose it was the old version.
I would like to use an old "walkman" cd player to connect the real ORIC.

If you are using the old version of tap2cd, it could be the reason indeed. I cannot remember if skuba dive has any custom loader or something that may disturb tap2cd. But the old version has problems with some hardware, and may not signal loading errors. Try the new one here in DF.

Also you can try the pregenerated wav with skool daze, it loads the ga,e in less than one minute

Back on the subject of copyright and licensing and whatnot, I was just wondering whether, given the recent revelations about Elite's treatment of Spectrum game developers, anyone's considered removing mention of them from the Skool Daze page? If the revelations are true, Elite doesn't deserve the advertisement.